ABSTRACT
Silvia Sebastiani addresses what the ‘orangutan’ contributes to our understanding of Enlightenment ‘science of man.’ How was knowledge of apes related to the conceptualization of humanity? In what sense, and to what extent, could the humanization of the ape affect the dehumanization of the human being? Her chapter deals with the multiple uses to which the orangutan was put during the 18th century, with a specific focus on Britain. Travelers, physicians, natural historians, and lawyers, while reshaping the boundaries between humans and apes, also divided human beings into different ‘races.’ What she tries to show in the chapter is an entwined process: the humanization of the orangutan went hand in hand with the dehumanization of a part of humankind. At the same time as the human/animal divide loosened, the divide between human races sharpened and crystallized. From that time until today, human and social sciences have repeatedly challenged and reconceptualized the human/animal divide and the ‘race question.’ She contends that a longer chronology provides a more nuanced and complex understanding of this persistent problem in conceptualizing humanity.
